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Joe McWilliams of Richmond holds a striped bass caught from White Oak Creek on Lake Cumberland in winter a couple of years ago. December is one of the best and most predictable months to catch striped bass from Lake Cumberland. The strong numbers of young striped bass in the population will power productive fishing over the next several years.
This is the third installment of the "Fall Fishing Festival" series of articles detailing productive fishing techniques and opportunities across Kentucky. These articles will continue to appear until mid-winter.
Few things in Kentucky's outdoors compare to being on Lake Cumberland at dawn with a bait tank full of threadfin shad, the boat slowing as it comes off plane as you near the channel drop that you plan to drift those shad over to fool a large striped bass.
Pandemonium reigns when several rods go down at the same time as striped bass hit the shad. Adrenaline pumps through your temples as you and your fishing partners navigate landing these powerful fish simultaneously. Striped bass usually nosedive for the depths after striking. When you realize you can't turn the fish at all, the increased rush is intoxicating. This thrill is why you fish and never tire of it.
December is one of the best months to fish for striped bass on Lake Cumberland. The fishery is coming out of a slight lull, and signs show striped bass populations in the lake are improving. A greatly increased effort to stock striped bass will power the fishery in the coming years.
In years past, Kentucky Fish and Wildlife typically stocked 300,000 striped bass annually, with a pulsed stocking of 500,000 fish every third year. Department staff decided to increase the numbers of its striped bass stocking program after adverse weather conditions in 2018 and 2019 knocked back those year classes.
"This year, we had a surplus and we stocked 600,000 striped bass in Lake Cumberland - more than our usual amount," said Marcy Anderson, Southeastern Fisheries District biologist for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. "We will stock 500,000 striped bass per year for the foreseeable future."
Striped bass are 11/2 inches long when they are stocked in June. By late November, they average 9-10 inches in size. Under favorable conditions, Anderson said, a striped bass stocked in 2022 could attain Lake Cumberland's legal limit of 22 inches by the fall of 2024.
Striped bass stockings in 2018 were normal. However, that year class was affected when Lake Cumberland reached its record pool of 756.52 feet above sea level on Feb. 26, 2019. "In the fall of 2019, those fish from the 2018 stockings were not there. We knew we had some lean years ahead," Anderson said.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released a tremendous amount of water through Wolf Creek Dam during the flood - nearly 60,000 cubic feet per second, which damaged portions of Kendall Recreation Area just downstream. The record pool also coincided with some hatchery issues, which happen occasionally. As a result, Lake Cumberland only received 132,000 striped bass in 2019, less than half its normal stocking.
The slight dip in larger striped bass that anglers may have noticed this summer and fall stems from these two smaller year classes coming through the population.
The fall netting biologists use to gauge Lake Cumberland's walleye population can also provide insight into the current state of the striped bass fishery, as there is usually the inadvertent catch of a few striped bass.
"The walleye netting we just completed revealed striped bass from the 2021 and 2022 year classes in the population," Anderson explained. "We saw several 28-inch striped bass as well, and they looked extremely healthy, very plump. They look great and the future should be bright."
The water temperature in Lake Cumberland was still in the high 50s over the Thanksgiving holiday, a bit high for this time of year. Striped bass typically move to the middle sections of the major creek arms in Lake Cumberland in December. Anderson said they may be behind a bit in their typical seasonal patterns due to the warm October.
"I would say the striped bass would be at mid-creek for this time of year, but anglers might want to adjust by starting on the main lake and lower sections of the creek and working their way up creek," she said.
As the water temperatures drop into the low 50s and eventually the 40s, the baitfish in Lake Cumberland form tight schools. A good sonar unit will detect schools of shad or alewives, a non-native baitfish introduced to Lake Cumberland a couple of decades ago.
Baitfish show up on the unit as a ball. Anglers should fish near these schools for striped bass in December. Vertical jigging a large silver spoon near the schools draws strikes as does fishing live bait.
Another way to prospect for striped bass in December is bottom fishing live shad, alewives or commercially-bought large shiners. Fish these on a slip-sinker rig with a 3/4-ounce egg sinker and a 20-pound monofilament main line with a 15-pound fluorocarbon leader. Set up on a point nearest the main lake in a major creek arm and place several lines at different depths. If you don't get a strike in 30 minutes or so, move to the next point up the creek until you find fish.
Lake Cumberland water temperatures usually drop into the mid-to-high 40s by Christmas. Striped bass then begin to hover over mud flats in the creeks, and spend the winter searching for the warmest water they can find. Bottom fishing live bait also works when stripers are over mud flats.
December is the holiday month. Use one of your days off to head to Lake Cumberland and prospect for hard-charging striped bass.